Tepa (Ash), March 30, GNA - Mr Kwasi Quainoo, Ashanti Regional Director of the National Service Scheme (NSS), has assured service personnel that his outfit was putting measures in place to ensure that their allowances were released on time. He said the service was not happy with the delay in the payment of their allowance, which he noted affected them.

Mr Quainoo was speaking at a one day HIV/AIDS seminar held for 23 service personnel posted to the Ahafo Ano North District and students of first and second cycle schools at Tepa at the week-end. They were taken through causes, symptoms and effects of the disease and its prevention by Dr Miguel Angel, a Cuban Doctor at the Tepa Government Hospital and Mr Asamoah Frimpong, Pharmacist, also at the Tepa Government Hospital. The seminar was on the theme: "Dissemination of Information on HIV/AIDS to newly posted National Service Personnel." The Regional Director assured the service personnel that whenever salaries were adjusted by central government, it would reflect in their allowances and appealed to them to manage with current allowances.

Mr Quainoo advised them to be dedicated, diligent, honest and hardworking to merit the recognition of the communities, organisations and institutions in which they worked. He told them that certificates issued to them at the completion of their service was based on hard work and good performance and said any service personnel who did not exhibit competence and hard work would not merit the certificate. Mr Gabriel Nyorkei, District Co-ordinator, said the seminar was aimed at arming the service personnel with the necessary information to deal with the situation. He said it was crucial for national service personnel to discuss and talk about AIDS wherever they found themselves and said as future leaders, Ghana could not afford to lose them to the AIDS pandemic.